If You Are the One
Director:
Feng Xiaogang
Year:
2008
Rating:
7.5
This Chinese romantic comedy was a huge
box office hit. In the three films before this one, director Feng Xiaogang
had gone big with A World Without Thieves, The Banquet and Assembly but perhaps
after that he needed a break - something simpler and less ambitious. This
is a quirky romance that at times reminded me of Woody Allen - mid-Allen.
It is funny but in a very quiet relaxed charming way. And the romance can't
really be defined as a traditional romance. It sort of gets there but then
not really. It leaves you wondering and that led to a sequel, which I can't
get hold of. So maybe I will never know how the story turns out. The photography
of landscapes in China and Japan are stunning but then so is Shu Qi. Maybe
more so. The camera just loves her and nearly fetishizes her face with close-up
after close-up. Staying on it as her expression subtlety changes in the smallest
of ways. Her co-star is not nearly as handsome and is not meant to be. You
Ge though is a very popular actor in China. A slight unremarkable looking
man, he has often worked with Feng and been in other classics as well such
as Farewell My Concubine, To Live, The Emperor's Shadow and Big Shot's Funeral.
The reminder of Allen struck me through
the film - but especially in the beginning. Qin Fen has returned to China
after years of working in America. He brings with him an invention for Conflict
Resolution that he sells to a Venture Capitalist for $2 million dollars.
All it is though is a tube that two men can put their arms in and play rock,
scissors and paper to resolve a conflict. A joke clearly on the Hot Chinese
economy at the time. After that he decides it is time to get married and
advertises for a wife. A number of women apply - all amusing scenes but one
- the woman who thinks sex once a year is enough, the woman who tells him
that if he backs out her brother will break his legs, another who thinks
of him as a stock with little value, a lady who tries to sell him a burial
plot, one is an elderly lady who forgets everything by the next day, in a
wonderful cameo Vivian Hsu who is pregnant and desperately wants a husband.
And then Smiley played by Shu Qi. Looking as he says like a Goddess,
But there is no chemistry. Neither feels
a thing for the other. He is in truth a bit of a conceited dick. In his profile
he said he wanted a woman who would do the laundry and neatly fold all the
clothes. But when the two of them realize that they will never see one another
again she confides in him. Unburdens herself. "I am in love with a married
man (HK's Alex Fong) who tells me he will divorce his wife but never does.
I knew I would love him forever as soon as I met him - Before I met him."
She is breaking into little pieces. He then tells her his secret. They go
on their way never expecting to see one another again. Of course, they do.
He keeps seeing women - sometimes she comes
to watch from another table. They are buddies. But intertwined in this are
amusing incidents - him forcing himself into a temple to pray and finding
out there is a funeral for a Yakuza boss going on or him and a friend going
to hostess bar with a picture of the gorgeous four sisters on the outside
- taken as they discover forty years ago. A sweet off-beat film with terrific
acting all around - Shu Qi is very good - her pain will make you think
of your own - that slowly worms its way inside you.
